The formula I recommend at my centre is based on a simple food principle that can easily be followed at home and also frees us from the slavery of having to weigh food.
In fact, suffice to correctly combine foods without having to rigorously check portion sizes. The «health triangle» diagram helps us understand which foods can be combined with each other and which can’t by simply following the arrows at the sides of the diagram. At the bottom of the triangle, notes are provided regarding the use of oil, salt and wine with an indication of the foods that never give any problems, along with those that should be eaten in moderation and those that should be avoided.
It is a sort of food traffic light that allows us some treats now and again. In general, the system adapts to suit all tastes; it includes fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, low-fat cheese and eggs and all we have to learn is how to combine them. It does not impose strict rules like having to eat just carrots and fish or thinly-sliced raw meat and artichokes. The diets recommended in magazines and newspapers instead provide fixed menus that don’t take into account personal taste. What are people who don’t like carrots and fish supposed to do or those who hate artichokes and thinly-sliced raw meat?
The other important feature of my system is that it turns the mechanism used in the most popular diets on its head; normally, you have to diet for six days a week and have Sundays free, whereas I invite you to do exactly the opposite.
I began to elaborate this theory with Pier Roberto Merani, the medical director at Melezzole, agreeing to be the guinea pig at a time when I wasn’t in great shape. In fact, I have a history of obesity in my family (my grandmother, my father), so a little care and attention every now and again doesn’t do any harm.
I also asked my father for advice and having carefully checked my notes he said, «A new method? It’s exactly the same as the custom of fasting on Friday in Catholicism». Great! In a single, concise phrase he had managed to squash all my enthusiasm. It was true, my system was the same as an age-old method, although one used for a completely different purpose. Yet I thought the idea of dieting just one day a week, following precise rules, would work.
If there are an endless number of people willing to follow strict rules for two months solid, why not something much easier and less demanding? Thanks to my system they would only need to diet for fifty-two days a year (one day a week) for an overall total of just under two months.
Have you ever seen someone seriously follow a diet for two months a year without getting fed up, without breaking it with some incredible excuse or without having to give up their social life? Without doubt, weight loss is slower than on «concentrated» diets, but results are much longer-lasting and more beneficial. Also the body is not subjected to excessive stress like when you are forced to change from a normal or high-calorie diet to a restricted or low-calorie one.
Thanks to One Day Light - unlike other diets in which, after extraordinary weight loss during the first few days, you have to face a gruelling battle with the last few kilos - the body adapts easily to an almost imperceptible change in diet, gradually losing excess weight and gaining a great sense of wellness. By dieting just one day a week you feel lighter, fitter, not weighed down or bloated and above all, not as hungry as a wolf.
What’s more, this pleasant sensation helps people control their eating on subsequent days too. For example, if you choose Mondays, it is easier not to exaggerate with food on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too as the depurative effect of the light day makes you stronger and more clear-headed and even if you give in to temptation at weekends, the diet comes full circle when you return to the light day.
Even using my system, you still need to keep a hold of the reins during the week, without giving in to continuous binges - and I mean continuous. In fact, many claim the can scoff huge quantities of food, but in 90% of cases, after binging excessively, they need to take a break, eat just salad for a day or drink some freshly-squeezed juice for lunch.
In fact, an obese person - just like all those who bolt down food compulsively - is not normal. By his or her very nature, an obese person is a pathological case and needs to be cured.
Furthermore, eating too much is fun and satisfying when it is the exception; if overeating becomes a daily occurrence you don’t even notice it and it becomes normal. Understanding and internalizing this concept - which I realize is not easy - can teach us to appreciate the flavour and taste of good food as never before and gladly accept even the sacrifice of a light day.
We can choose a light day even if we don’t need to lose weight, but if we feel the need to detoxify, rebalance our body and learn to eat differently for a better quality of life. All this takes into account that for both that day and for the rest of the week the body must receive everything it needs.
This is why high-protein and single-food diets in general baffle me. When a person follows a diet that is high in animal protein, cholesterol and uric acids tend to increase, whilst a lot of starchy foods mean triglyceride levels reach the stars. We have to realize that humans are omnivores and therefore need to eat everything, because each food is important and satisfies a particular need.